The invention relates to a shaft furnace for the melting down of non-ferrous metals in a recycling process, particularly for the melting down of lead, comprising a crane runway arranged above the shaft furnace; a carriage movable on said crane runway between a loading station and an unloading station, also located above the shaft furnace; and a trailer cross arm being provided on said car for selectively securing and releasing sorting containers.
Such shaft furnaces are to be classified under the area of foundry furnaces, like cupola furnaces for example. These shaft furnaces are used in one special area for the purpose of recovering non-ferrous metals from assemblies which are no longer usable, like, for example, lead from batteries. The other components to be sorted out, likewise, are rather bulky. The sorted materials are formed, in addition to unbroken batteries and battery scrap, also by furnace slag, coke, iron shavings, iron oxide, limestone and partially dust. These materials are compiled prior to being fed into the shaft furnace in mixing beds. Thereby a pre-selected program determines the mixing ratio of the individual raw materials. The unloading and preparation of the raw material and the storage are carried out in a hall. Tractor shovels handle the transportation in the hall.